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How it works

AStep 1: Plan : First, identify exactly what your problem is. You may find it useful to use tools like Drill Down , Cause and Effect Diagrams , and the 5 Whys o help you really get to the root of it. Once you've done this, it may be t appropriate for you to map the process is at the root of the problem . Next, draw together any other that information you need that will help you start sketching out solutions. .

BStep 2: Do : This phase involves several activities:  Generate possible solutions.  Select the best of these solutions, perhaps using techniques like Impact Analysis them. to scrutinize  Implement a pilot project on a small scale basis, with a small group, or in a limited geographical area, or using some other trial design appropriate to the nature of your problem, product or initiative..

CStep 3: Check : In this phase, you measure how effective the pilot solution has been, and gather together any learning from it that could make it even better. You may decide to repeat the "Do" and "Check" phases, incorporating your additional improvements. Once you are finally satisfied that the costs would outweigh the benefits of repeating the Do - Check sub-cycles, you can move on to the final phase.

DStep 4: Act : Now you implement your solution fully. However, your use of the PDCA Cycle doesn't necessarily stop there. If you are using the PDCA or Deming Wheel as part of a continuous improvement initiative, you need to loop back to the Plan Phase (Step 1), and seek out further areas for improvement.

 

ITIL

What is ITIL (The Information Technology Infrastructure Library) ?.
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library – ITIL-- is a set of practices for IT service management-- ITSM -- that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business. ITIL describes processes, procedures, tasks and checklists that are not organization-specific, used by an organization for establishing integration with the organization's strategy, delivering value and maintaining a minimum level of competency. It allows the organization to establish a baseline from which it can plan, implement, and measure. It is used to demonstrate compliance and to measure improvement.
The Information Technology Service Strategy.
The ITIL Service Strategy (SS) provides guidance on clarification and prioritization of service-provider investments in services. More generally, Service Strategy focuses on helping IT organizations improve and develop over the long term. In both cases, Service Strategy relies largely upon a market-driven approach. Key topics covered include service value definition, business-case development, service assets, market analysis, and service provider types. List of covered processes.
The Information Technology Service Design.
The Service Design (SD) provides good-practice guidance on the design of IT services, processes, and other aspects of the service management effort. Significantly, design within ITIL is understood to encompass all elements relevant to technology service delivery, rather than focusing solely on design of the technology itself. As such, service design addresses how a planned service solution interacts with the larger business and technical environments, service management systems required to support the service, processes which interact with the service, technology, and architecture required to support the service, and the supply chain required to support the planned service. Within ITIL, design work for an IT service is aggregated into a single service design package (SDP). Service design packages, along with other information about services, are managed within the service catalogue.
The Information Technology Service Operation.
Service Operation (SO) aims to provide best practice for achieving the delivery of agreed levels of services both to end-users and the customers (where "customers" refer to those individuals who pay for the service and negotiate the SLAs). Service operation, as described in the ITIL Service Operation volume, is the part of the lifecycle where the services and value is actually directly delivered. Also the monitoring of problems and balance between service reliability and cost etc. are considered. The functions include technical management, application management, operations management and service desk as well as, responsibilities for staff engaging in Service Operation.
The Information Technology Service Transition.
Service transition (ST), as described by the ITIL service transition volume, relates to the delivery of services required by a business into live/operational use, and often encompasses the "project" side of IT rather than business as usual (BAU). This area also covers topics such as managing changes to the BAU environment.
The Information Technology Continual Service Improvement.
Continual service improvement, defined in the ITIL continual service improvement volume, aims to align and realign IT services to changing business needs by identifying and implementing improvements to the IT services that support the business processes. It incorporates many of the same concepts articulated in the Deming Cycle of Plan-Do-Check-Act. The perspective of CSI on improvement is the business perspective of service quality, even though CSI aims to improve process effectiveness, efficiency and cost effectiveness of the IT processes through the whole lifecycle. To manage improvement, CSI should clearly define what should be controlled and measured. CSI needs to be treated just like any other service practice. There needs to be upfront planning, training and awareness, ongoing scheduling, roles created, ownership assigned, and activities identified to be successful. CSI must be planned and scheduled as process with defined activities, inputs, outputs, roles and reporting. Continual Service Improvement and Application Performance Management (APM) are two sides of the same coin. They both focus on improvement with APM tying together service design, service transition, and service operation which in turn helps raise the bar of operational excellence for IT..

 

The Deming Cycle provides a useful, controlled problem solving process. It is particularly effective for: Helping implement Kaizen Improvement approaches, when the cycle is repeated again and or Continuous again as new areas for improvement are sought and solved. Identifying new solutions and improvement to processes that are repeated frequently. In this situation, you will benefit from extra improvement s built in to the process many times over once it is implemented. Exploring a range of possible new solutions to problems, and trying them out and improving them in a controlled way before selecting one for full implementation. Avoiding the large scale wastage of resources that comes with full scale implementation of a mediocre or poor solution.

 

Clearly, use of a Deming Cycle approach is slower and more measured than a straightforward "gung ho" implementation. In true emergency situations, this means that it may not be appropriate (however, it's easy for people to think that situations are more of an emergency than, in reality, they really are...)